This is a delightful queer romance. August has moved to New York City, and on the Q line she meets Jane – who’s somehow bound to the subway, and has been for the last 45 years. It’s the story of their budding love, as they try to work out how to break Jane’s time loop, and get her off the train before the line gets shut for maintenance.

They’re joined by a fun cast of supporting characters:

• Myla and Niko (a couple who live with August)
• Wes (the fourth housemate, who has a crush on Isiah/Annie, the drag queen across the hall)
• the staff of Billy’s, a pancake house where August works

They all feel human and three-dimensional, even if we only see a very narrow slice of them.

It’s a fun, easy read that made me cry at several points at the end.

I’m also vaguely reassured that I enjoyed this despite it being a somewhat “messy” queer book. Jane was alive in the ’70s, and we get gay rights activists, the AIDs crisis, furious sex, drag bars, and more. It’s been a while since I read a book with those themes; without the more toned-down, family-friendly version of queerness. I was a bit worried the “messiness” is why I bounced off Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, but this puts those concerns to rest.

It was a recommendation from Charlotte K, and I devoured it in less than a day.

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